Abuse and shame the legacies of Sweden's old assimilation polices: report

Speakers of the Meänkieli language in Sweden were subjected to physical and emotional abuse, and even racial biology examinations.

That's part of the evidence collected by a truth and reconciliation commission looking at historical assimilation policies targeting Tornedalians, Kvens and Lantalainen, minority groups based mostly in northern Sweden and along the Finnish border.

”Their mother tongue, Meänkieli, became something they started to feel shamed of,” says Anna-Lena Sjölund, one of the commission's secretaries. A similar truth commission for the Sami people is also currently underway.